Prepayment Risk
Prepayment risk is the uncertainty associated with the timing and amount of principal repayments on debt instruments, most commonly observed in mortgage-backed securities. Borrowers often refinance their loans when market interest rates drop, leading to an accelerated return of principal to the investor.
This forces the investor to reinvest the returned capital at lower prevailing interest rates, thereby reducing the expected yield of the investment. In the digital asset space, similar risks appear in decentralized finance protocols where collateralized loans might be repaid early due to algorithmic adjustments or user behavior.
Managing this risk requires sophisticated modeling of borrower behavior and interest rate environments to estimate cash flow stability.